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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 20:9-11 wherein we see God’s grace extended once again on the heels of deception and a judgmental spirit.
Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
God has interesting ways of making Himself known to people who might otherwise think little of Him. Our friend Abraham has once again not shown himself to be a stellar husband in telling the king of Gerar, Abimelech, that his bride was only his sister. The aging, but apparently still quite lovely Sarah, was taken into the kings court only to bring with her a curse of barrenness to his home and terrifying dreams from the Lord to boot! Yes, God made himself know in this land through the use of the foolishness of His servant Abraham.
But I do believe that through this sinful action, now twice committed, Abraham was being taught a lesson beyond that of the shame that accompanies dishonesty. It seems that he had an issue with judging others that exceeded the bounds of using general discernment about strangers. Abraham was willing to withhold truth because he assumed that nobody feared God in that city and would therefore only do him harm. Instead of trusting God and exhibiting His righteousness in a new place, he took the low road of fear and self-preservation. Granted, it would have been nerve racking to travel about as Abraham did, knowing that your wealth and beautiful wife would attract the attention of others, but it might be that dealing with people outside of his normal area of familiarity and influence was an ability that God was sharpening in him. Two times now, this sin of lying led to the revealing of good character in the men attracted to Sarah. Abraham in many ways lost some of his opportunity to witness to God’s greatness before those who very well might have listened. Instead, people were likely a bit nervous to have him in their presence after they experienced warning from God for crossing a line that they didn’t even know was there.
What is clear once again from the life of father Abraham is that we have been given his story both for the observation of examples of faith and the profound grace of God given to a man that He was committed to keeping covenant with. Dishonesty and a judgmental spirit (though on most days he very well might have done better in these areas) were both aspects of Abraham’s character that we are meant to learn from, observing the consequences of them and the kindness of God that is yet available on the other side of such transgressions. It should stun us that our perfect Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was promised as the Seed that would come through such flawed creatures. God’s ways are forever mysterious but His mercies abundant and promises sure. Let us delight ourselves in Him today.
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